2012 News

Compiled by Terry Kilburn

News Archives

At 10 pm (UK time) on October 16 Sky Arts 1 will air the first in a new TV documentary series called Guitar Stories. Presented by John Illsley, the first of these programmes features Mark talking about some of the guitars from Hofners to Pensas that have helped shape his career.

You can follow the series on Twitter: @GuitarStoriesUK and check out the Guitar Stories Mark Knopfler Facebook trailer here

I’ll never forget the day my father came home from work to tell us that one of his colleagues, a supposedly educated man, had said: “What do I care if the rhino becomes extinct?”

I was a young teenager then and today this is a very real danger. Due to man’s greed we may well lose these amazing animals forever.

Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Waterberg area in South Africa and to meet a man there named Anthony Baber, who has dedicated his life to preserving rhino.

A kilogram of rhino horn is now worth $75,000 on the street in the East. Last year 463 rhino were poached in South Africa and this year over 340 so far. Recently our friends lost a beautiful rhino cow to poachers. She was the only one who did not have a guard with her. Fortunately the 22 month old calf survived and he is old enough to be weaned. I hate to show these horrific pictures but it is the stark reality we are facing.

Ant’s wife Tessa told me: It seems in the future we are going to have to do what they do in Kenya and have armed anti-poaching guys with each animal or if we can eventually raise sufficient funds put in a military type radar system which are now available which would detect any person coming across fences or on the property. The success of this sort of system is that it then allows one to actually catch them before they do the deed. It would also possibly allow us to take on other owners’ rhinos in order to protect them. Anyway we are enormously grateful if you can just put it on your website to allow us to create more awareness of this disaster.

If anyone out there would like to help with preserving rhino on a grass roots level, please get in touch with tessa@waterberg.net

Earlier this summer we offered you your first chance at great tickets for many of the dates on Mark’s autumn tour with Bob Dylan. This Monday, September 10, the MarkKnopfler.com presales for the remaining 18 shows will begin. Please see the Tour page for the exact start times.

You will need a free MarkKnopfler.com membership to participate in these presales so if you don’t have one yet, please create one now and be sure to log in just before the start of the sale for your chance at some of the best seats in the house.

Please also have your credit card handy, as we no longer store that information. And speaking of credit cards, we are happy to now offer our customers the ability to purchase with American Express.

First, two new dates have been added in Spain, on July 29 in Gijon and July 30 in San Sebastian. Second, the venue for the previously announced April 27 show in Istanbul has now been confirmed as the Atakoy Athletics Arena. The MarkKnopfler.com Store will be hosting presales for all three of these dates. For full details please see the Tour page.

The next round of Mark Knopfler’s 2013 Privateering tour dates have been announced. MarkKnopfler.com member presales for 27 of 29 new shows will begin on September 5. Check the Tour page for start times of presales for these newly announced shows. Please note we will not be conducting a presale for the Russian dates, so keep an eye on the Tour page for public sale details.

If you’re new to the MarkKnopfler.com ticket presales, visit our FAQ section for answers to any questions you may have.

As promised, we have more 2013 tour dates to let you know about. Thirteen new dates in Europe have been confirmed, in Austria, Germany and The Netherlands. The MarkKnopfler.com member presales for these shows will begin on September 3. For full details and presale start times, please visit the Tour page now. You will need a free MarkKnopfler.com membership to participate in these presales so if you don’t have one yet, you can sign up here. Then, be sure to log in just before the start of the sale for your chance at some of the best seats in the house. Keep an eye on your inbox, and the Tour page, as there will be many more dates announced soon.

It has come to our attention that Ticketmaster has mistakenly listed Mark as a being on the bill for a number of dates with Bob Dylan, beginning today (August 29). The actual first date of Mark’s tour with Bob is October 5 in Winnipeg.

For a complete and accurate list of dates, please visit the Tour page.

Following the announcement of the first batch of dates on Mark’s 2013 European tour yesterday, we’re now able to confirm five more shows in Norway and Sweden, starting with a June 11 stop in Hamar, NO.

The MarkKnopfler.com presales for these shows will begin August 30. Visit the Tour page for details and start times.

You will need a free MarkKnopfler.com membership to participate in these presales so if you don’t have one yet, you can sign up here.

If you’ve bought with us before, have your credit card handy, as that information is no longer saved with your account. And speaking of credit cards, we now take American Express.

Be sure to log in just before the start of the sale for your chance at some of the best seats in the house.

As we hinted at recently, Mark will indeed be touring in support of his new album, Privateering. The first set of UK and European dates have been confirmed and MarkKnopfler.com will be holding members-only presales for these shows, starting this Wednesday, August 29.

For the full list of announced shows and presale dates for the Privateering tour, please visit our Tour page. There will be many more show and presale dates being announced in the coming weeks.

As a special bonus for UK members buying tickets for the UK shows, for every order of two tickets or more, you will receive a code to redeem for a free copy of Privateering.